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How's the performance of iOS 9 on the Air 2?

chfilm

chfilm

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Nov 15, 2012
3,542
2,369
Berlin
hey,
I was wondering, my 2 year contract of my iPad Air runs out in November, and I was thinking, maybe to sell the air and just get a new contract with an air 2. Should cost around the same money and the device will be a free upgrade basically.
Does this make sense, performance wise? Or should maybe just get a prepaid contract until there's air 3 with force touch? The only benefits I can see is split view, Touch ID (that would be nice) and better performance. Cause i realized, that iOS 9 doesn't feel particularly snappy on my air.. For example pulling down the search is really laggy, and the app switcher too.

What do you think?
 
The way I look at it, there's no way not to upgrade iOS 9 on the iPad Air 2, otherwise you'll miss out on updates in the future. Fortunately the Air 2 is up to the task compared to the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus.

I fresh installed iOS 9 on my Air 2 and it runs fabulous except for the first time I pulled up Control Center after a fresh reboot. It lagged when I pulled it up the first time but the 50 times that I pulled it up since, no lag. Also no lag in Safari or any other app and no lag pulling down Notitications.
 
chfilm said:
hey,
I was wondering, my 2 year contract of my iPad Air runs out in November, and I was thinking, maybe to sell the air and just get a new contract with an air 2. Should cost around the same money and the device will be a free upgrade basically.
Does this make sense, performance wise? Or should maybe just get a prepaid contract until there's air 3 with force touch? The only benefits I can see is split view, Touch ID (that would be nice) and better performance. Cause i realized, that iOS 9 doesn't feel particularly snappy on my air.. For example pulling down the search is really laggy, and the app switcher too.

What do you think?
Click to expand...


The Air 2 has better specs than the iPad Mini 4. I don't have an Air 2, but I do have the Mini 4 and feel qualified to answer you because I have an Air 1 as well.
Yes. Upgrade. The difference between my 2 devices on iOS 9 is very pronounced. The Mini 4 is much faster - sleeker - does more - so if you have the money to spend you should not make yourself wait another year to enjoy the benefits of upgrading imo.
If money is a big consideration, then no. The Air 1 is fine on iOS 9, it just won't do as much and feels a bit laggy.
 
Air 2 is very smooth and quick on ios 9. No issues here at all

Air 2 would be a great but for you I'm sure
 
Runs better than 8.x for me. The occasional cases of "panning" (screen lag) are gone, and I seem to have more battery life, too. With the support for ad blockers in Safari (in iOS 9), it's pretty much mandatory anyway if you do a lot of browsing on your device. Like night and day.
 
chfilm said:
hey,
I was wondering, my 2 year contract of my iPad Air runs out in November, and I was thinking, maybe to sell the air and just get a new contract with an air 2. Should cost around the same money and the device will be a free upgrade basically.
Does this make sense, performance wise? Or should maybe just get a prepaid contract until there's air 3 with force touch? The only benefits I can see is split view, Touch ID (that would be nice) and better performance. Cause i realized, that iOS 9 doesn't feel particularly snappy on my air.. For example pulling down the search is really laggy, and the app switcher too.

What do you think?
Click to expand...
I have the Mini 4 and my wife has the Air 2. Both perform very well on IOS9. There was a video imbedded in another recent iPad thread that compared the 2. In that video, the Air 2 performed slightly better than the Mini (Opening apps for example). I've done the same side-by-side tests....this is my experience too. The iPad 2 is vey snappy on IOS 9 and all animations are buttery smooth. My Mini 4 has areas where animations are jittery/choppy by comparison. Scrolling open apps is an example.

By the way, I just traded up from the Air 1. I was tired of the constant screen refreshes in Safari with the Air 1. No such issues with the Air 2.
 
Last edited:
DSTOFEL said:
I have the Mini 4 and my wife has the Air 2. Both perform very well on IOS9. There was a video imbedded in another recent iPad thread that compared the 2. In that video,,the Air 2 performed slightly better than the Mini Opening apps for example). I've done the same sis-by-side tests....this is my experience too. The iPad 2 is vey snappy on IOS 9 and all animations are buttery smooth. My Mini 4 has areas where animations are jittery/choppy by comparison. Scrolling open apps is an example.

By the way, I just traded up from the Air 1. I was tired of the constant screen refreshes in Safari with the Air 1. No such issues with the Air 2.
Click to expand...

I traded up too. I wish I had done this last year when the 2 came out. Using Safari now is ridiculously awesome.
 
chfilm said:
hey,
I was wondering, my 2 year contract of my iPad Air runs out in November, and I was thinking, maybe to sell the air and just get a new contract with an air 2. Should cost around the same money and the device will be a free upgrade basically.
Does this make sense, performance wise? Or should maybe just get a prepaid contract until there's air 3 with force touch? The only benefits I can see is split view, Touch ID (that would be nice) and better performance. Cause i realized, that iOS 9 doesn't feel particularly snappy on my air.. For example pulling down the search is really laggy, and the app switcher too.

What do you think?
Click to expand...
 
Updated my air 2 as soon as ios9 was released. Runs very well, nice and smooth so very pleased.
A couple of my apps have crashed but no big deal.
 
Every release of iOS from version 7.0 has made every one of my iOS devices worse rather than better. In spite of that track record, I upgraded my newly acquired Air 2 to iOS 9. Smooth, clean, snappy... no issues whatsoever.
 
Hah thanks, I see you guy are very convinced! I could easily upgrade, yes. Only question is, probably we'll see an upgraded air with force touch and even maybe the pencil next year, won't we? I'd hate to miss that..
 
chfilm said:
Hah thanks, I see you guy are very convinced! I could easily upgrade, yes. Only question is, probably we'll see an upgraded air with force touch and even maybe the pencil next year, won't we? I'd hate to miss that..
Click to expand...
I would expect force touch on next year's yeah. They need to give people reason to upgrade
 
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